Journey to L and H: Up against mountains

When we adopted our son in 2020, I remember thinking that adopting again after this will be a piece of cake. The pandemic caused innumerous delays and frustrations as we tried to navigate the process in an unfamiliar country during an unprecedented global nightmare. 

And yet we've found ourselves again in an unprecedented situation, causing delays and problems for our current adoption case. 

Once the investigation of the adopted child(ren) is completed and signed by the Liberian Ministry of Gender and Children's Services, the next step is for the case to be handed over to the court.

Once the court hearing is completed, by Liberian law, the child(ren) are legally adopted. The adoptive family can then gain full custody and the child(ren) can live with them until they can immigrate them back to the states.

Unfortunately, here is where problems have begun to emerge.

For almost two years now, families who have reached this point in the process have run into incredible delays when they begin dealing with the US side of things. 

An interview at the US Embassy in Liberia is next, where the case is brought before officials there and all paperwork is submitted, including pre-immigration documents that we submit months in advance.  After the initial interview of adoptive AND birth relatives, it is their turn to review our entire case.

Frustratingly, the newest officials handling these interviews and approvals have begun to demand more and more as they unnecessarily scrutinize cases. Initially we had been told our entire trip to Liberia would be a total of 3-5 weeks. Yet from what we were seeing, it was turning into months and months. It was taking so long that families with jobs back home were having to return their children back to the orphanage from which they came and go back to the US where they would have to wait for the approval from the US Embassy before they could come get their child. Our agency had recently had to start recommending two trips: one trip for the court hearing, and a second trip once the US Embassy approved the case.

In December, we saw a post on Facebook from a family asking if anyone had any questions about the slowness happening. They had just had their case approved within 24 hrs. Why? Because they spoke up to demand metrics as to why all the delays. Suspicious? Yes. 

We reached out to this family and they added us to a message group of families who are all directly affected by these delays. The information we were immediately fed was pretty staggering and very discouraging. That US Embassy personnel would conduct themselves the way they were/are is appalling. With little oversight, they hold all the power. And despite many attempts to reach out to senators and congressmen, there has proven to be very few who have any desire or ability to change what's being done. The answers we've received literally are copied and pasted from one family to the next. Essentially: "The Embassy has it under control."

The most recent atrocity made by the Embassy is to pick apart a specific case and allege that the director of the orphanage our girls live in was involved in child recruitment. Because legally the US cannot interfere in foreign affairs, they are unable to do their own investigation.

Instead they've put immense pressure on the Liberian govt to do so. Which has led to a complete halt of all adoption progress. This allegation was announced around the time that our case was signed and released. And therefore we cannot move forward with a court hearing until this investigation is completed. 

Of course we uphold and agree with necessary processes for making sure children are legally adoptable. But trust me, there are additional loophole and steps being demanded of adoptive families and agencies that were not in existence 2 years ago. The process hasn't changed. The staff at the embassy has.

We've heard countless unbelievable stories by fellow adoptive families. And it's maddening to think that the hold ups are all on the American side. 

I could go into much more detail and explain til I'm blue in the face. The point is that we are up against mountains. Huge hurdles, giant impossibilities. 

We need prayer and we need peace and we need resilience to journey through this. I am thankful that we have an entire adoption story that we can look back on and see Gods faithfulness through it all. I am thankful for a supportive family and community around us. For me, it's about those precious kids. They clearly need a family and while they are in good care at the moment, we are so eager and ready to bring them home. There's nothing to do but trust that God will make a way. And maybe go storm the doors of the Liberian Ministry while we're at it....